William Styron, who wrote Sophie's Choice, looked to other novels to appreciate an author's thematic and stylistic choices. One of the novels Styron admired was Sound and Fury, by William Faulkner. Styron has embraced some of Faulkner's approach to writing and this can be seen by juxtaposing both Sophie's Choice and Sound and Fury. Love and guilt are important topics shared by both novels. These emotions are felt by humans every day, but having too much of both of these elements can prove detrimental to humanity's well-being. Sophie, the protagonist of Sophie's Choice, must accept the loss of her family: her parents, husband, and children, to the Nazi Party in Germany. In the final chapters of the novel, one of Sophie's most heartbreaking choices is revealed; she makes the emotional decision to select only one of her children to survive with her in the death camp, while her daughter Eva was sent to the crematorium. Sophie made many decisions to keep her family alive before they were sent to the camp, such as deciding not to help the rebels' cause, but the guilt she faces after this decision has sculpted her personality and carries with it the remorse for the unfortunate death of his daughter. for the rest of his life. Sophie expressed her feelings to Stingo about her daughter by saying, “it might even save me from the guilt I felt about Eva. In a way I know I shouldn't feel any hard feelings for something I did that way. I see it was... out of my control, but it's still so terrible to wake up all these mornings with a memory of it, to have to live with it. If you add that to all the other bad things I've done, it all becomes unbearable. Simply unbearable (p 538).” Sophie kept these feelings to herself... in the middle of a sheet of paper... for her, just as Nathan kept Sophie from being loved by Stingo. To conclude, love and guilt are emotions that allow human beings to change. one's personality, both negatively and positively. For Sophie and Quentin, guilt consumed their every thought, and guilt was inevitable for them. Their only solution was to end their lives in hopes of freeing themselves from the past. Stingo and Caddy experience different types of love: one comes from the perspective of a lover, the other from that of a mother, but both types represent how love is infinite and indestructible. Because Styron admired Faulkner's writing, he was able to capture similar emotions and character chemistry and create a well-written novel. Works Cited Faulkner, William. The sound and the fury. Faulkner. New York: Modern Library, 1956. Print.Styron, William. Sophie's Choice. New York: Random House, 1979. Print.